Part 10 (2/2)

If a single man pulls up a sage tree at midnight on Christmas Eve a storm will arise and the man's future wife will appear.

It is unlucky to bring holly into the house before Christmas Eve.

All evergreens used for Christmas decoration should be burnt on Candlemas day and care must be taken to burn all the holly berries, otherwise a death in the family may be expected for each berry left in the house unburnt.

Mistletoe should hang in the house from one Christmas to another.

It is unlucky to bring the May flower or the Chestnut blossom into the house.

If flowers like the Dandelion or Pimpernel are closed or shut up it fortells rain and bad weather, but if quite open fine weather.

When the mulberry tree begins to shoot, the last frost has gone. In Hunts it is called the wise tree.

The shooting of the Ash and Oak in the Spring is carefully watched, and the first appearance of the new shoots accords with this rhyme:--

If the Ash before the Oak, Then there'll be a regular soak; But if the Oak before the Ash, Then there'll only be a splash,

I have seen children eating apples and taking the pips one by one and repeating this doggrel:--

Cobbley, Cobbley, fly away Bring me an apple tomorrow day.

At the words ”fly away” they used to throw the pip away, in the firm belief that they would have another apple the next day for every pip thrown; but only one pip from each apple could be used by each child.

KING'S CLIFFE.

On Palm Sunday the Church used to be decorated with palm branches in the seats and windows.

On Christmas Day the parishoners and clerk used to meet at the Church, at three o'clock in the morning and sing a Psalm and then proceed to the Cross, and to every gentleman's house in the town for which they received a largesse during the holidays.

A winding bell used be tolled on a dead person being put into her shroud.

G.o.dMANCHESTER.

If a man dies intestate and leaves a family the youngest son becomes the heir to the property.

HUNTINGDON.

Once a year, the Freemen of Huntingdon used to meet on the Market Hill, they then proceeded in procession dragging a horse's skull with them and perambulated the bounds of the Freemen's lands. At certain points there are boundry holes dug, these holes they re-dig and hold a boy (one of the Freemen's sons) up by his heels with his head in the hole, and strike him (on the part prepared by nature for that purpose), with the spade. This is done at each hole. A different boy was whipped at every hole so that several could remember where the holes were dug, especially the hole at which each individual had suffered, and the memory of the hole was impressed on mind and body, and the position of the boundary marks were thus registered.

For many years the annual custom has been discontinued, and takes place at irregular intervals. It has only occurred once during this century.

The men of G.o.dmanchester sometimes formed bands on the same day and when they met the men of Huntingdon a free fight and struggle took place between them to secure the horse's skull.

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